Swingbyte Review

I’m always looking for the next swing improvement tool, because it is often the Indian, not the arrow, who causes most errant shots.

I was excited for the opportunity to evaluate the Swingbyte, a swing analyzing system that attaches to your golf clubs and sends swing data to a mobile phone or tablet through Bluetooth.

Swingbyte captures club head speed and acceleration at all points through the swing, the club’s true plane from address to impact, club face angle relative to swing path, static and dynamic loft and lie at address and impact, as well as angle of attack, club path and tempo. But like any gadget, especially one that promises so much and is as cheap as the Swingbyte, I approached testing with caution.

Pros: Swingbyte provides an incredible amount of information for the very modest price of $149. The information provided was accurate and relevant, once you understood how to sort through it. It’s compatible with Apple iPhone (3GS or later), as well as the iPod Touch and all iPads. It also works with Android phones and tablets 2.3.3 with Bluetooth 3.0 or later.

Cons: Setup was difficult, and the user interface is not very intuitive. The unit also rotated left on the shaft after several swings, which resulted in bad readings, meaning I had to keep realigning the unit to stay square to the clubface. At times, I found it difficult to understand the information that Swingbyte provided.

Overall: The device is simple to attach and fairly easy to use. It was free of any technical glitches, and I found it easy to sync the results. For $149, the Swingbyte provides an unbelievable amount of data. But some of the data is so in depth and technical that you may need to talk to your PGA Professional to get the most out of it.

Here are some of the screen displays:

Out of the box, the Swingbyte setup guide was difficult to follow, and I could have used some audio instruction to go along with the pictorial. I also found it difficult to switch from the swing view screen to the data screen, which I believe should be be more user friendly, requiring only one click back and forth.

The Swingbyte did a lot of thing very well, however. It worked equally well with my iPhone as it did my Samsung Galaxy Tablet. I had no problems turning unit turned on and off, and swing data and swing screen animations it provided were excellent. Although I first struggled to interpret the large amount of data that Swingbyte provides, once I developed a corrective action plan with my PGA Professional the device was excellent at tracking progress or absence thereof.

If you consider how much it would cost to get this level of information on an ongoing basis, this price of $149 dollars is extremely modest. With just a few simple improvements, this could be a “got to have” swing improvement tool.

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OK, so now that I’ve collected a bunch of data on how horrible my swing is, what do I do with the data that I dont know how to read? Now that I’m confused more with this data, I have to fork out another $150 for a pro to analyze the data? Why don’t I just go straight to a pro and have him analyze my swing from the get go? I sometimes don’t understand products like this.

I think you can easily see and understand the swing path, the clubhead face angle. If anything, I like it so I know what my driver clubhead speed is. It helps you know when you make a good swing. Also you can see what your tendencies are, recorded, so you can see after a range session if you are more likely to draw, fade, straight, or slice/hook. Swing tempo is something you can google, and it’s very helpful in achieving a consistent swing. You can even see shaft lean I think where you can see if you have a descending blow on the ball, or if you are scooping. It doesn’t tell you ball speed and launch angle cuz it doesn’t have those means, but indeed there is a lot of worth data available from such a small device.

I just wanted to say that I received the Swingbyte for Christmas, and it is the best gadget that I have ever used for swing training, I realized how my swing was incorrect, and was able to correct it the very first day. Being able to view my swing arc is the most helpful tool that I have ever seen! When I first started, my down swing was out side of my back swing, and now it is below my backswing which is correct, however I never knew that before yesterday. The contact with the ball is now so much more pure feeling that I can hardly believe it! I compared my swing with some of the top pros on V1 sports app for iPad and was able to emulate them! This is one of the best gifts that any golfer could ever receive! One person mentioned in their review that the Swingbyte rotated on the shaft, I lifted one end of mine up on the grip and now it does not rotate, it will stay in place through all of my swings, that is an easy fix for me. I am extremely pleased and I believe you will be too!

I think this all sounds awesome I am curious to see how well it works becuase i have used alot of bluetooth in many different thing however never golf, and they dont always work that well so i am kind of wondering if it works very well. But like most have said for 150 bucks it is probably worth trying and if it works well that is a great tool to help with giving lessons, your swing, and much more

We (IPGA) just recently had our Teaching and Technology summit at Cog Hill. Manzella was there with his Trackman unit, as were the guys from Swing Guru, and Swingbyte. I finally had the opportunity to use Swingbyte and Trackman simultaneously. Although the numbers were’nt exactly alike, it gave me the path and face numbers and they were spot on. Pro- you don’t have to hit from a mat or lie board. I’m one that believes that the strike is influenced by the type of surface you are hitting on. When hitting from an acylic lie board, it’s difficult NOT to hit a good shot. If you hit it fat, the board gives enough to allow the clubface to bounce into the ball and hit it pretty well. Also the spin axis is affected. It take quit a bit of hand action action to purposly hit a hard slice or diving rope hook. The board almost gives the strike agear effect. I’m sure someone smarter than myself can explain what that is.

Con- You must be very cognizant of your alignment. You need a practice station, and you also need to check to make sure the unit has not moved due to a heavy strike. The other thing you must do is make absoloulty certian that you’re aiming where you think you’re aiming, even if you have to stand DTL like you would in your pre-shot routine.

although Trackman is the standard in LM technology, all most of us will use it for is pre-strike path and face to path angle at impact. Then the attack angle and vertical launch, spin, swing speed, and ball speed. But all I want my students to use it for is path and face. I they can learn to “zero out” their swings on their own, we can then spend more time on short game, playing lessons, and learning to PLAY GOLF, instead of grinding on positions that might or might not improvem their ball striking. At the end of the day, all your looking for is consistancy in your ball striking, and the ability to quantify the path and face angle conditions is what has made Trackman the future of ball striking instruction, and for $150 bucks, how can you not give it a try?

swingbyte is not user friendly,however,there is alot of info to be gleaned ounce you figure out how to set up and decipher how to assimilate the info provided.like all other techno devices thst are new,this will get better.i know i sound negative,i’ve been using swingbyte for a month now,my advice…..get it.it’s a good device just be patient